Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 137 The Governor's Dilemma

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Having suffered such a crushing defeat, Wang Zunde, who had been quite spirited, seemed to have aged ten years overnight, his hair turning much whiter. He waved his hand weakly, "Men, take them to the dungeon and await their fate." The commander's personal guards came in and took away the distraught Xu Ting and Sun Tianbiao.

Wang Zunde looked at everyone, but whether it was the chief officials of the three departments such as Mu Tianyan, the prefects of Haibei and Hainan, the prefect of Guangzhou Yu Baocheng, or even the usually tough imperial inspector Gao Shunqin, they all avoided his gaze, as if they were deliberately avoiding something.

Wang Zunde knew perfectly well that everyone sitting in this hall was a shrewd veteran of the officialdom, and they all understood that with last night's disastrous defeat, the death knell for him, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, had sounded. Dismissal was only a matter of time, and given the Emperor's temper, it was uncertain whether he could even save his life. Although he hadn't yet reached the point of everyone kicking him while he was down, at least most of the officials' respect for him as Governor-General had vanished.

Wang Zunde shook his head and sighed: "I am incompetent and have failed to wipe out the bandits. Instead, they have become so arrogant in the provincial capital. I will bear all the blame for this."

Mu Tianyan and the others secretly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Although Wang Zunde had acted arbitrarily in the matter of suppressing the bandits, leading to the current situation, his character was still commendable. If he took responsibility, everyone would be much safer. If he had acted recklessly and shifted the blame onto everyone else, although it wouldn't have lessened his own responsibility much, the officials present would have been implicated to some extent.

With his tone, the officials perked up considerably, breaking their previous silence and offering their suggestions and advice.

"In my humble opinion, since we cannot repel the bandits, we should sit down and talk. The conditions the bandits have put forward are not too difficult," Yu Baocheng suggested.

The others all agreed.

Haibei Prefectural Governor also said, "Yes, these thieves don't seem to be unreasonable people."

"Apart from the silver, we can negotiate all other conditions. As for the withdrawal, since we've already lost and are going to have to withdraw anyway, we might as well do a favor."

……

Wang Zunde coldly watched the crowd chattering away. Through their expressions, he could see their true thoughts, which could be summarized in one sentence: "Your governor-general wanted to fight this war, and now that you've lost, you should quickly negotiate terms with them and get them to withdraw their troops, so that everyone doesn't end up in a difficult position."

According to Wang Zunde's own thinking, although the battle was lost, the rebels were powerless to breach the city. As long as he remained governor, Guangzhou would be defended, and he would never surrender to the rebels. This was not only to preserve the face of the imperial court and the government, but also to preserve his last shred of dignity.

However, after listening to everyone's discussions, they all revolved around the core issue of negotiating with the thieves. The only difference was whether or not to agree to all of their conditions, which was completely contrary to his own ideas.

Wang Zunde coughed, intending to speak righteously and reason with them to persuade them to abandon their intentions and work together to defend Guangzhou, forcing the bandits to retreat when their supplies ran out.